Playing Games

Mason

I sucked in a pinched breath as I bent over to retrieve my jeans and shirt from the bedroom floor. After stripping out of them last night, I’d fallen right into bed. Now Laina was coming over to stay for who knew how long, and my house wasn’t in the best state—neither was I.

The pain wasn’t as bad as it had been. I could move around on my own fine and perform most of my daily tasks. Bending over, turning too quickly, or lifting anything that weighed more than fifteen or so pounds made my ribs scream bloody murder, though, so I’d left some of those tasks and put them off. But now that Laina was on her way, I had the strange urge to try to make everything as perfect as possible.

“Fuck,” I growled under my breath. When had I started to care this much? When had things gone from a fun, casual hook up after the bar that night to this full-blown need to impress?

I shook my head. This was the exact path I’d gone down with Evelyn. And that had left Ric